Clearly, our friends at COCOBOD are a little confused about what they have been hearing on our network about the cocoa industry, reading the statement on their website.

https://www.cocobod.gh/news_details.php?id=53

The first part of the documentary, “POOR MILLIONAIRES” which aired on Thursday 4^th December said nothing about the free mass spraying exercise and free fertilizer scheme.

In fact, those concerns from the farmers are contained in the second part of the documentary which airs tomorrow. And yes, I visited more than 10 cocoa growing communities in the Western and Ashanti regions and did not meet a single cocoa farmer who benefits from the two freebies exactly as COCOBOD has promised it.

The point about chemicals being stolen actually came up in my colleague Kwetey Nartey’s investigative report aired on Monday. And yes, a mistake was made on Tuesday morning when we attributed the changes that have happened in the management of the programme to the revelations in the investigative report.

I have since apologized to Mrs. Rita Owusu Amankwaah for that, and she subsequently clarified the Ghana Cocoa Platform’s position on the issue on the Business report at 8am.

The story was only faulty to the extent that Joy news attributed the changes to its report, but everything else the story said about changes in the management of CODAPEC still stands. And COCOBOD’s statement today confirms this earlier story.

But that does not take away the substance of the revelations. And isn’t it rather funny that despite the changes COCOBOD says have been effected to the management of the mass spraying exercise since the beginning of the year, Nartey’s investigative report revealed the theft still persists.

COCOBOD is right, when it says Mrs. Owusu Amankwaah doesn’t speak for them. But the Head of Public Affairs should tell us what has happened to the questionnaire and request for interview I sent to him almost two months ago.

He appears to have forgotten that despite the numerous follow-ups, COCOBOD showed it was not ready to respond to the issues. His boss, Dr. Stephen Opuni acted even more strangely; he never picks our calls, reply our text nor Whatsapp messages. 

Well, the question on my mind is, whose interest are they serving by closing up the institution to scrutiny?

By the way, we thank COCOBOD for the response in their statement on the millions of bags of fertilizers they are distributing to farmers, and the millions of litres of insecticide sprays they have been distributing, and the thousands of beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme.

But can COCOBOD also give us responses on some of the other outstanding issues.

Does COCOBOD have an idea where the 9.3 million cedis government allocated in the 2011 budget for the cocoa farmers’ pension scheme has gone to? Why are they not causing the arrest of the guys who were captured in Kwetey’s investigative report diverting the farmers’ fertilizers? And COCOBOD should tell us where the clinics and education infrastructure and roads in cocoa communities they claim to have improved are, so we go see them. 

Finally, COCOBOD claims to be paying farmers at least 70 percent of the Free on Board Price of cocoa on the international market. But as the Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture Dr. Akoto Owusu Afriyie and other industry stakeholders have shown us, that should amount about 470 cedis per bag of cocoa. So if you continue to give them 345 cedis per bag, and the farmers demand more, and you sit in your office asking them to be appreciative for the recent increases, then COCOBOD is more than detached from the farmers.